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Thursday, November 19, 2009

The trend of men losing their jobs faster than women during this recession is occurring across the nation. News articles and commentaries about the topic began to appear with headlines like the one in Forbes that read "In This Recession, Men Drop Out." One headline in USA Today read "Women Gain As Men Lose Jobs." That article predicted that half the national workforce could be women by November.

There have also been some clever names created to describe this trend. "Mancession" is one of the more commonly used titles, although the term "The Great He-pression" may become more common if men's employment situation does not improve.

Under normal economic conditions, the unemployment rates for men and women tend to be similar. There are now almost four unemployed men for every three unemployed women, and men account for 56 percent of unemployed workers nationwide. The unemployment rate for men more than doubled through September 2009 to 11.0 percent, while the rate for women increased to 8.4 percent.

Monthly unemployment rates by sex are not available at the state level.

More Oregon Men Collecting Unemployment Insurance than WomenAccording to the Distribution of Characteristics of the Insured Unemployed report, there were about three men collecting unemployment insurance benefits in Oregon for every two women collecting benefits in September 2009. The ratio of men to women collecting benefits is typically about equal.

Women's share of the workforce has of course increased over time, but men still make up the majority of workers. Oregon's workforce gender split is about the same as it is nationwide.

The W Recession?Some authors have also observed that women are taking on more hours or returning to the workforce when their spouse loses his job. This view is supported by BLS data that shows the number of women in the labor force nationwide has increased faster than men since the recession began.

Read the full article, written by Nick Beleiciks, for more information about how this recession is affecting men and women differently.

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